Customer Reviews

My Years With Gorbachev and Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter

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As a former student of languages and translator, and as someone who studied Russian for many years, I frankly thought that this would be more focused on the work of a Russian translator. I was expecting many detailed references to words and phrases that were difficult to translate from one language to another, and other esoteric references to a translator's work. However, this book is really much more of a history and insider's account of the final years of the Soviet Union.

As the book's title suggests, it is particularly based on the author's experiences with Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze, and the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. If you are a serious student of Soviet/Russian history, you will love all the behind the scenes details of Soviet foreign policy. Palazchenko also provides us with many interesting moments from the final months and days of the USSR. Although the book is a memoir of a "Soviet Interpreter", Palazchenko also held substantive policymaking positions, and thus we learn about many details of Soviet foreign policy making.

I do have some critiques of the book. As I mentioned, due to the title I expected the book to be more concerned with translation. Unfortunately (at least for people with interests like mine), there are probably no more than 5-6 times in the whole book where the author details translation issues. I also expected the book to contain more biographical details. But the author ultimately either did not want to include them in the book or is an incredibly private man. There are probably less than 5 pages of material in the whole book about his family, education, and personal life. Treatment of events and history is sometimes haphazard and uneven. Some moments are described in great detail, while whole years/events are glossed over from coverage. The author prefaces the book with a disclaimer that he feels that even though the USSR no longer exists, he feels obliged to maintain his secrecy obligations. Therefore it's not clear if he's omitting materials because he feels he cannot do so ethically, because he feels they are uninteresting, or some other reason.

At other times, he seems overly loyal to his former bosses, and particularly Gorbachev. The latter part of the book often seems like a panegyric to Gorbachev.

In spite of my criticisms, this book is a must read for all those seriously interested in the final years of the USSR, and particularly its foreign policy. I was also pleasantly surprised at well the book was written, and how easy it was to read, especially considering that it was authored by a non-native English speaker, and published by an academic press.